A blog of my inner most thoughts on film and movies. Here, I will discuss great movies, diss bad ones and argue about movies in between. I will talk about movies new & old, stuff my generation loves (and why most of the time they are insane) and defend my DVD shelf to the death. Please enjoy and comment to your heart's desire. Thanks.
Twitter: @almostflmcritic

Sunday, September 3, 2017

The Good, The Ehhh and The Ugly of Summer 2017

The Good

1. All Things Wonder Woman

What can be
said about Patty Jenkins’ first theatrical outing in 14 years that hasn’t been
said already? Some said an early cut was a mess. Some said it would bomb.
Others believed it would have the DCEU’s smallest opening. A select few even
wondered why Gal Gadot had shaved armpits for crying out loud.

But what
are they saying now? The film critic community loved it. Theatre owners loved
the increased concessions sales. Warner Brothers went crazy for the $800+
million worldwide gross. Girls, both the young & the young at heart,
cheered as they saw their heroine come out of the box swinging. Comic book bros
were (mostly) quieted by what they saw on screen.

As for
yours truly, a CBM skeptic if there ever was one, I was astonished by the
entire 140 minutes. Gal Gadot went into a gear she never displayed in any of
her previous work. She feels so comfortable in that armor. Jenkins’ direction
& the writing of Geoff Johns provide the excellent crescendo for Diana (and
Gadot by extension) to rise from princess into warrior. But she is not without
help. With his role as Steve Trevor, Chris Pine should finally get that final
boost needed for him to be considered a star. The chemistry between Gadot &
Pine is electric. Their first two scenes of just them talking (the hot springs
& the boat) are so natural you’d swear they’ve known each other for years.
The rest of the cast from the powerful Connie Neilsen & Robin Wright to the
always reliable Lucy Davis & David Thewlis create an ensemble that would
rival any other created this year. Most criticism is placed on the now-typical
big & loud CBM ending. I would argue that even though the villains are a
bit on the slight & cartoony side, the climax is the only time WW goes into
full CBM mode with big, major set piece.

What we are
left with is the best movie of the summer, the best summer blockbuster in years
& a financial success beyond comprehension.

2. Logan Lucky

This was
familiar territory for Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh. He’s done
heist movies before with his Ocean’s Trilogy. But those movies weren’t as
exciting or as fun or as funny as this. Logan Lucky follows the exploits of
Jimmy Logan, an unemployed former football star, as he leads a team of small
town “experts” as they attempt to burgle Charlotte Motor Speedway during the
Coca-Cola 600. Each member of the team is unique. You have the wounded war vet
turned one-armed bartender. You have the incarcerated improvised ballistics expert.
All these characters & more all set out to get the American Dream.

3. All Things Baby Driver

When Sony
moved Edgar Wright’s newest flick from the August 11th to June 28th,
I was skeptical. Not of the picture itself but of the strategy behind the move.
August was wide open outside of the potential blockbuster The Dark Tower (which
Sony didn’t need to worry about after all). Why release any movie targeted
towards the prime demographic (males aged 15-34) five days after the 5th
Transformers movie & nine days before the newest reboot of Spider-Man? It
turns out we needn’t worry: the people came to the tune of almost $200 million
worldwide on a $34 million production budget, making it one of the few movies
to show a profit this summer.

As for the
movie itself, I have to defend my position on it. First & foremost, I liked
it but didn’t love it. I enjoyed to inventiveness of the action sequences. I
loved the smart, fresh dialogue and the small interactions between Baby &
his caretaker. I liked most of the characters, especially Baby’s fellow
criminal cohorts. So, why didn’t I love this movie like everyone else? First,
the gimmick of having every action sequence be choreographed to a piece of
popular music wore off especially when it bled into mundane acts like opening a
car door. Secondly, I didn’t feel that the Debora was developed enough as a
character. Outside of those two mild pieces, Baby Driver was quite the
satisfying experience in the middle of this dull summer.

4. The Big Sick

Kumail
Nanjani & Emily Gordon have such a unique love story that they wanted to
tell us about it. Boy, am I happy they did. Their semi-autobiographical look at
their story pulls the heartstrings in every direction possible so often that
one might wonder if their heart might stop under protest. We meet Kumail as an
up-and-coming comic who gets heckled by young Emily in the audience. They soon
hit it off & have what they perceive to be a one night stand. Meanwhile,
Kumail is being pressured by his parents to find a suitable Pakistani wife,
just like his brother. Soon, his profession & personal worlds are turned
upside down as Emily goes into a coma and Kumail is forced to meet &
entertain her parents for the first time. What The Big Sick gives us is a story
about the hopes & dreams of two separate cultures and how creating the
American Dream in the melting pot that is Modern America is difficult &
sometimes can tear family bonds. Nanjani (as “himself”) & Zoe Kazan are
great as the central couple but the movie is almost stolen from them by Ray
Ramano & Holly Hunter as Emily’s parents. The Big Sick is that special
Sundance hit that the world needs in the middle of every summer in between all
those overblown blockbusters to settle the stomachs of the movie-going public
and it succeeded critically & commercially.

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 @ the Box Office

This sequel
to the surprise hit of 2014 was supposed to be the biggest movie of the summer
of 2017. While it didn’t get that title this year, it wasn’t because it was a
disappointment. A $390 million domestic & an $860 million worldwide gross
is nothing to laugh at for these characters who aren’t as well known as most
comic book heroes with their own movie franchises.

6. Captain Underpants

On the
surface, Captain Underpants looks to be made for the lowest common denominator:
little children & childish tweens. But once the lights went down, we were
treated to a fable about the power of imagination & creativity. Best
friends George & Harold use a magical decoder ring to turn their
authoritarian school principal Benjamin Krupp into their comic creation,
Captain Underpants. Don’t you hate it when that happens?! Captain Underpants,
with the illusion of superpowers & with a office curtain as a cape, must
face off against the diabolical Professor Poopy Pants & his plot to take
over the world using giant toilets.

Childish
& bathroom humor are prevalent throughout but heart is never far behind.
The animation style is never revolutionary nor did it try to be but what there
was was expertly faithful to the source material as possible. Each of the voice
actors is great in their own way with Nick Kroll getting the highest marks as
the absurd villain. One can only hope that we are treated to another
installment but with the moderate box office success, I’m not getting my hopes
up.

Upper Limbo

Spider-Man Homecoming Box Office

With its
$325 million domestic take, this Spider-Man adaptation was surely boosted by
the presence of Tony Stark after the previous installment disasterous
post-opening weekend run. So why am I not 100 % positive about this? The
international numbers are down significantly ($500 million vs $418 million),
showing the possibility of Spider-Man fatigue. Marvel & Sony need to tread
lightly.

The Eh…

1. Atomic Blonde

Based on a
graphic novel, Atomic Blonde is the story of an MI6 agent who is tasked with
reclaiming a list of undercover agents before it gets into the wrong hands. The
first 60% of the pic nearly all style with a sliver of overstuffed substance.
Taking place in 1989 Berlin, you see & feel 1989 Europe all around you.
Old, dirty buildings on the outside with all the neon pink & yellow the set
designer could find on the insides. The spy story gets too complicated &
jumbled too quickly that if you arrived on time you might miss something. But
once all that stuff got out of the way, Charlize Theron & the fight
choreography took over & never quit. There’s an “no cut” fight scene that
takes place in an apartment & stairwell that will rival any previous type
of scene in its precision & kill count. Theron continues to show she is
more than an pretty face. She is a bad ass of the highest order. If Atomic
Blonde were as exciting & pulse-pounding as the last 45 minutes, I could
whole heartedly recommend it. But as it exists, watch the first 10 minutes then
skip to the action scene above at about the 1:20 mark, sit back & enjoy.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy

As for the
movie itself, I have to be honest: it has been about two months since I watched
the picture, I don’t remember a thing I liked. I vividly remember sitting in
the theatre with popcorn in my lap, watching the images on the screen, enjoying
some of what I saw then the end credits started rolling, I stood up to yell at
some teenagers who fooled around the entire time & finally left. But I
can’t for the life of me remember a single specific thing I enjoyed about the
movie. I can tell you that the opening credits “fight” was an unwanted
distraction. I can remember thinking that the subplot revolving around the
spaceships piloted remotely deserved their own 95 minute movie & not just a
subplot in a 130 minute one. I remember the sneezing fit I had in the middle.
But GotGV2 is nothing but a typical forgettable entry in the MCU.

3. The Mummy

I’ll be
talking about the failures of numerous franchise or would-be franchise entries
a little later in the piece but here I want to talk about one that failed but
was not nearly as bad as most say it was. Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe has
the possibility of being something with the pedigree of acting talent they have
arranged. This franchise-starter was able to bring in Tom Cruise & Russell
Crowe for crying out loud. Cruise is the only reason why this movie isn’t a
disaster. In his 35 years in front of the camera, Cruise is never the reason a
movie is terrible & The Mummy is the best example of that. The movie is a
mess with its terrible Alex Kurtzman direction & special effects and an
overcooked screenplay. But Cruise makes the best of it as he runs from set
piece to set piece like a madman while I alone smiled the whole time. Crowe
hams it up as Jekyll/Hyde but everyone else is given nothing to do. A big missed
opportunity nonetheless.

4. Trio of Three-quels

What can be
said about Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3 that hasn’t been said already? Both are
new entries to animated franchises on the decline critically &
commercially. Both are movies that succeed in making my MoviePass subscription
worth it for seeing these. Cars 3 has a feminist angle that doesn’t work since
it isn’t all that feminist. DM3 has a brotherhood angle that doesn’t work since
the movie ends just as the movie got interesting. Both had small moments that
worked (Cars 3 looked like it wasn’t going to have a happy ending for a moment
while DM3’s villain was an interesting character for a while before blowing up
in our face). Both are so unworthy of continuing to be talked about.

War for the
Planet of the Apes, on the other hand, had the potential of finishing off as
one of the best cinematic trilogies. For half the runtime, it looked that way
as our protagonists ventured into the post-Simian Flu world. That excitement
came to a screeching halt once they encounter The Colonel & his ape prison.

Lower Limbo

Girls Trip

Let me get
something off my chest: I laughed a few times during the first hour of Girls
Trip due to the sheer outrageousness of some of the proceedings. In the weeks
since, I’ve forgotten all the laughs. One big reason is that they weren’t all
that noteworthy. Another reason is that the movie devolves into a borefest
about the main character & her professional athlete husband’s marriage
& whether they can hold it together for a television deal. But my biggest
issue with Girls Trip is the character played by the breakout star of the
summer, Tiffany Haddish. Her Dina is played as if she’s a bonafide cartoon. She
is completely untethered to any possible reality this movie can offer, making
any believability in her character impossible. Combine that with an abrupt
half-ending, Girls Trip won’t make a place in my summer scrapbook.

The Ugly

1. Dunkirk

I freely
admit I am a crazy person. This is one of those times where I’m in the vast
minority. I found Dunkirk to be an empty attempt by virtuoso Christopher Nolan to
make his version of Gravity. I couldn’t find a single character to care about.
For more, check out my review elsewhere on this blog.

2. Victims of Sequel Fatigue & Franchise-itis

Per usual,
this summer had its share of sequels & potential franchise starters. A
select few did well, most wearing capes & previously mentioned. The fifth
installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean did fairly well internationally
($620 million) to help Disney show a small profit for the summer. Most every
other franchise tanked and it started early with the disaster that was King
Arthur ($146 worldwide on a $175 million budget), which resembled the legend in
name only. The following weekend, Alien: Covenant ($74 million domestic) failed
as word got out as well. The weekend after that Baywatch ($58 million domestic)
attempted to pull a 21 Jump Street-type reboot but failed miserably. The fifth
Transformers installment crashed & burned domestically ($130 million) but
is still a thing elsewhere ($473 internation). Even the critically acclaimed
War for the Planet of the Apes suffered this summer ($144 domestic & $366
worldwide). But the two disasters waited until the disaster that was August.
The Dark Tower was supposed to start a multimedia universe but after critical
& commercial failure ($101 worldwide on a $60 million budget) that might
not happen. But at least Sony is in better shape than Open Road, who put all
their chips behind a sequel to an animated movie few saw to begin with. Now,
after The Nut Job 2 ($28.7 million worldwide on a $40 million budget), Open
Road is in dire straits.

3. Comedy

Outside of
Girls Trip, comedy took a pounding this summer critically & commercially.
Heck, even I skipped most of them (I saw Rough Night only because of a drive-in
double feature with Baby Driver). In addition to the previously mentioned Baywatch,
Snatched ($46 million), Rough Night ($22 million) and The House ($25.5 million
after being hidden from critics) all failed miserably.

4. The Emoji Movie

This thing
(it shouldn’t be confused with an actual movie) isn’t worth writing about any
further. Check out my review on this monstrosity elsewhere here.

The Worst

5. A Ghost Story

David
Lowery’s A Ghost Story is the perfect example of a movie cinephiles are made
fun of for liking. Lowery, who made this in between commitments for last year’s
Pete’s Dragon remake, wrote & directed this to be as artistic &
ambiguous as possible. Unfortunately, what was projected is pretentious &
ambiguous until the final 15 minutes, which is balls-to-the-wall bizarre
leading to an abrupt, infuriating ending. Casey Affleck acts his heart out under
that giant bed sheet & Rooney Mara eats the heck out of a pie but all is
for naught.

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About Me

Twitter: @almostflmcritic
Contributor @ MovieRehab.com
I just your normal, married, 9-to-5'er trying to to make ends meet. I have two weaknesses: low-stakes forms of gambling and movies (in case you can't tell). My wife set up this blog to fully embrace my love for great movies of then, now & the future.